1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a suspension board with circuit and to a producing method thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to a suspension board with circuit mounting thereon a magnetic head of a hard disc drive and to a producing method thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A suspension board with circuit mounts thereon a magnetic head of a hard disk drive and supports the magnetic head, with a minute interval between the magnetic head and a magnetic disk held against an airflow generated when the magnetic head and the magnetic disk run relative to each other.
A terminal portion of this suspension board with circuit is usually formed by carrying out electrolysis nickel plating and electrolysis gold plating sequentially. When the terminal portion is formed in this plating process, part of a conductor layer of the suspension board with circuit is used as a lead portion of the electrolysis plating.
Specifically, when the terminal portion is formed in the suspension board with circuit, the conductor layer is exposed from a lateral side of a cover layer; the conductor layer thus exposed is used as the lead portion of the electrolysis plating; and after completion of the forming of the terminal portion, the lead portion is removed by etching (Cf. JP Patent Laid-open (Unexamined) Publication No. Hei 10-265572).
However, in the method outlined above, since the conductor layer remains exposed to outside at the end thereof as it is after the removal of the lead portion by etching, there is a possibility that the conductor layer may be corroded from its exposed end portion to cause some defects.
In addition, in the method outlined above, the process of etching the lead portion is indispensable, thus causing increase in the number of processes.